LENNON was the target of coins, drink and other missiles from loutish Aberdeen fans as he sat in the Tynecastle stands to take in Saturday's League Cup semi final between the Dons and St Johnstone.

NEIL LENNON last night warned the thugs could drive him out of Scottish football after the latest attack at Tynecastle.

The Celtic boss may now stop going to rivals’ stadiums to watch games after he was subjected to a disgraceful attack by loutish Aberdeen fans who threw coins and drinks at him during Saturday’s League Cup semi-final.

Lennon left in the second half as he feared for the safety of himself and those around him.

He thought he had moved on from the dark days of his first two years in charge of Celtic when he received death threats and was assaulted on the Tynecastle touchline by a Hearts fan.

But the latest attack, which there comes a time when enough is enough, Lennon said: “I’m sure, yeah. That’s when you’ve got to say well maybe you need to look at something else in your life if you can’t go to a game and enjoy it when you’re out working.

“I thought we were past all this. I thought with a neutral game like a semi-final it would be okay. I’m there doing my job because we’re playing Aberdeen next week.

“I’ve been to other grounds, I was at Motherwell the week before watching Aberdeen and I’ve been all up and down the country and never had to put up with that before.

“It makes me think twice about going to games if that’s the type of thing that’s going to happen. Somebody could have been hurt and I’m not over-exaggerating. Somebody could have been hit in the eye with a coin. It’s just not on.”

As Aberdeen confirmed yesterday they are no further forward in the hunt for the morons who shamed the club, and appealed for any witnesses to report them, Lennon detailed what happened.

He said: “I don’t think it was sectarian, it was drink-fuelled.

“About 30 minutes into the game a coin whistled past my head and actually hit a gentleman sitting in front of me on his back – and he’s an Aberdeen fan.

“I think he was either a member of the board or maybe with the staff because he was sitting in the directors box.

“Thankfully he wasn’t that hurt because he was wearing a big padded coat but he was obviously aware of it and gave the coin to a female steward.

“At half-time we were thinking about leaving but they said, ‘Look, we’ve got you seats closer to the Press Box’.

“Again, you don’t mind the abuse because you can take that, you get that up and down the country.

“But when the third goal went in a drink flew over our heads and landed in the Press Box, hitting two journalists and splashing over their computers. We weren’t forced to leave but decided it was best for our own safety and the safety of people sitting around all this.

“I wasn’t really shaken up afterwards but I felt for my staff (assistant Garry Parker and physio Tim Williamson) and they felt for me.”

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said in a statement: “Given this occurred at one of our games we apologise to Neil for this utterly unacceptable behaviour.

The Celtic support rallied round their manager with a standing ovation after 18 minutes (Lennon’s shirt number during his playing days) of yesterday’s 1-0 win over St Mirren.

Lennon added: “It was fantastic. I can’t thank them enough for that and it gave the players a real lift too because it’s something we don’t hear very often in games when we’re so much in control.”

Celtic’s victory saw Fraser Forster break a 92-year club record by racking up his 11th consecutive clean sheet in the league.

The keeper’s 1035-minute run without conceding is now just three games and seven minutes short of the world record held by Edwin van der Sar, who went 1311 minutes without losing a league goal for Manchester United.

Lennon said: “It’s a great record and one we are all very proud of, particularly Fraser.

“These are special times for the players. They can reflect on this as quite an achievement. To break such a long-standing record is fantastic.”